Infinite Possibilities
by NightEternal
Summary: On Hiatus! I'm not happy with this, so I'm completely redoing it.
1. Chapter 1

Author: Sephora

Disclaimer: We all know this by now. I won't even bother with it. -.- Sephora is mine, that's all.

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at a Stargate: Atlantis Fanfic. Flames are welcome, as is constructive criticism. Please, if you read it, review it. I'd love to know what you all think.

Also, I'd like to thank my new beta, Phoenix. Thanks you for your time and for reading through my story.

* * *

Chapter 1 – Do I Have A Choice?

"It's bad enough to have to deal with the drama of everyday life that comes with being a teenager, now, the United States government wants to add to it. My mom got a call last Friday when I was still at school. It was someone named Landry. He wants me to go to Colorado to meet with some people I've never even heard of." Sephora sighed into the receiver of her cell phone. She absentmindedly toyed with a strand of hair, the sun glinting off of it and giving it a soft shine.

"Well, sweetie, did they say what it was about?" Her best friend Elizabeth said from the other end. There had always been something in Lizzie's voice that told Sephora that everything would work out for the better. She was always such an optimist, whereas Sephora thought that every day sucked and nothing in life was free. They balanced each other out in a strange way.

"Not a word."

"I'm sure everything will be fine, sweetie. Maybe they want to offer you a job?"

"I'm seventeen, Lizzie."

"Yeah, but you're smart. Besides, it's not like they've never done something like this. I'm pretty sure they've hired people before they turned eighteen. They recruit you for the military at seventeen, why not some other government job?"

"Lizzie?"

"Hmm?"

"Stop being logical and reasonable and just accept the fact that I've screwed something up and they want to arrest me." Sephora could almost hear her friend laugh, and when she spoke again, she knew Lizzie was smiling.

"Would you just relax? It's nothing, I'm sure of it."

"If you say so. Look, I have to go pack. I'll call you before we leave, okay?"

"Alright," Sephora was about to hang up when she heard Lizzie say something.

"Don't forget, I'm behind you all the way. I'll even come and visit you in Sing Sing." Both girls laughed as they said good-bye. As she closed her phone and slipped it into her pocket, Sephora couldn't help but laugh. No matter what kind of mood she was in, Lizzie could always make her laugh. If it was raining, Lizzie would light the room better than the sun, and even though she wasn't sure, Sephora knew Lizzie had some sort of power that made everyone around her happy and warm.

* * *

Colorado was cold, Sephora decided as she stepped out of the toasty SUV and into the biting wind. Military personnel moved about, each one wearing the same camouflage fatigues. She couldn't understand how they managed it in such weather, but she wasn't about to ask. Her parents slid from the Jeep behind her and after a short conversation with the guard on duty at the North Portal, they were being escorted deep within the complex to a meeting room. As she took her seat, she glanced about the room. Including her parents and herself, she counted twelve people.

Five were dressed in well-tailored outfits and looked rather stoic, as though they didn't really care to be there. Sephora could only assume this was the IOA that Landry had mentioned to her parents. They probably would have intimidated her, had she not been so nervous. She was, however, frightened by the hulk of a man across the table from her. His dark skin was pulled taunt over muscles and his eyes, while guarded and indifferent, seemed to see right through her tough-act and straight into her soul. She shivered involuntarily, and turned her attention to the people beside him.

Two wore military dress uniforms and the other wore casual clothing in the form of black cargo pants, boots, a tight black shirt and thin-rimmed glasses that only sharpened his features. Her eyes locked with his, steel blue-gray meeting with sea foam green, and she had to force herself to look away. 'He's probably too old for me anyways,' she reasoned. Her thoughts turned to the older man that had walked in, dressed in Air Force dress. He had an air of command to him and she could only assume that this was Major General Landry. She turned her chair to follow him as he made his way to the head of the table.

"Miss Reneau." He held out his hand and she took it, shaking only slightly. She'd never been big on meeting people. Her mother had actually called her anti-social once because of her lack of friends. She forced a smile and nodded as he took his seat. He motioned to the well-dressed group, proving her initial assumption true. The members of the IOA looked at her with a mixture of expressions. Several were disdainful, one was of cold calculation, one was indifferent, but one was of sympathy and something else, an understanding of sorts. He introduced the large man as Teal'c and the three to his left as Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Leutenient Colonel Samantha Carter and the one with the gorgeous eyes was Doctor Daniel Jackson. Once again, Sephora smiled.

After thirty minutes of listening to the IOA go on about something (Sephora had spaced out about five minutes into the discussion) she couldn't take anymore. Coolidge was boring, and that was putting it nicely. Sephora turned to Laundry after exerting a vast amount of strength to lift her head from the table.

"Could you just…get to the point? Why am I here?" She asked, pinching the bridge of her nose to fight off an oncoming headache. "If you're going to arrest me, just do it. I can't listen to him babble on anymore," she growled.

"I-is that why you think you're here? You think you're in trouble?" Carter said, an amused smile playing on her lips. "That couldn't be further from the truth, Miss Reneau. You're here because of something you said."

"Not really what you said, so much as how you said it," Jackson chimed in. "It was brought to our attention that you posted something online. At first we thought maybe it was just some juvenile prank, maybe a fluke of some sort, but I knew when I heard it. Have you ever heard of a race called the Ancients?"

Sephora shook her head. "No. Why?"

"Well, they spoke something similar to Ancient Egyptian, and I thought that's what you were speaking when I heard your little clip on the internet, but as I listened to it over and over again, something hit me. Your pronunciation and grammar were wrong. At least, they were for Ancient Egyptian. When I ran it against some things a colleague sent from an expedition, a file in Ancient, I noticed how similar they were. I personally don't speak Ancient, but Doctor Wier does. I sent her the clip and…"

"We got the point, Daniel," Carter hinted.

"So, you're saying that I'm here because I ranted on the internet about something in a language that I've always spoken of when I go into rants?" She said, raising a skeptic eyebrow. She laughed and looked away, absently twirling her chair around. "So, what's so special about this?"

"The Ancients were our ancestors. They were highly evolved beings, more so than we could hope to be within the next three centuries if not the next millennium. They built a device called a Stargate. It locks on to another gate at the coordinates given by the seven- or even eight-chevron code. It uses wormhole technology to open a stable portal to planets all over the galaxy and, if you've got enough power, other galaxies as well. They suffered from a plague here on earth and left, seeking out a new home. They found it in the Pegasus galaxy. A few years ago, we discovered where they went, and we sent a team of military and civilian personnel from many countries to explore their civilization. Do you know what we found?"

Sephora shook her head. She was trying very hard to keep up, but it wasn't easy.

"We found Atlantis. The Lost City, perfectly preserved and lying in wait at the bottom of the ocean for the descendants of the Ancients to come back to it. Now, Atlantis is our base of operations in the Pegasus galaxy, and we're attempting to translate its database; as good as Doctor Wier is, she hardly perfect at translating the language. That's why we called you, that's why we need you. So, will you go to Atlantis?" He seemed all too eager, almost like a small child that had just been given free reign over a toy store or a candy shop.

Sephora looked over at her parents. They seemed frightened at the thought of sending their only child so far away from home. The fact that it was another galaxy with any number of dangers only seemed to make it worse. She took a deep breath and turned towards Jackson. "Am I the only person you can send for this?" She sighed again as he nodded and leaned back in his chair.

"I'm afraid so."

"I haven't got much of a choice then, do I?" She muttered.

* * *

Author's Note: Well, that's it for the first chapter. If you like it, I'll write another one, possibly even make it into a novel-length story if I get enough feedback. So, let me know what you think, okay?


	2. Chapter 2

Author: Sephora

Disclaimer: I only own Sephora and the plot. Other than that, Not Mine.

Author's Note: Any words in _Italics _is Ancient. If they're in _**Bold Italics**_, they're Wraith. If anyone has any ideas for the future of this, let me know. As always con. crit. is welcome. Now, enjoy.

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Chapter 2 - Warm Welcomes and Settling In

Learning of the existence of a gate that allowed people to travel from planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy, was a simple thing to comprehend. Accepting it enough to actually use the gate, was something else entirely. Sephora didn't really care for the idea of her body being broken down into individual particles and sent millions of light-years away. In truth, she refused to do so. She opted, instead, for the two week journey on the Deadelus. She had never seen anything like space in hyper speed, and she never cared to see it again. Even with the inertial dampeners, she felt nauseous. Her only relief was knowing that, after so very long in such confined space, they would be at Atlantis within the hour.

Well, that and her iPod. She had never known that the little device would be so useful. It had kept her from ripping the arm off of that little alien and bashing him over the head with it, and it had saved many of the other scientists and military personnel from her wrath as well. She hated being told what to do, and having someone shove their superior intelligence in her face was not the way to make friends with her.

She stood on the bridge, enthralled with the sight of the planet, almost completely covered in blue ocean and wispy clouds, come into view from the utter blackness that was space. Behind her she could hear Caldwell giving orders, but she ignored him. She could see others moving about, doing their jobs, and yet nothing could bring her gaze from the sight of Atlantis' home world. Maybe it was the fact that she'd never seen another planet before, or maybe it was the realization that she was no longer at home and that she would have to take orders from someone she didn't know if she wished to continue living rather than die at the hands, literally, of some alien vampires she had never seen. She didn't know which. There was still the possibility that it was all three and more.

"Doctor Weir, this is the Deadelus, asking permission to land." There was a pause, and Sephora was afraid that no one would answer.

"You have a go, Colonel. Permission to land on the North Pier is granted. It's good to hear your voice again." The woman on the other end of the comm. sounded relieved.

"It's good to be back, Doctor." He said after giving the command to land. Sephora felt a bit uneasy as they descended through the atmosphere of the planet, and she has to force herself to look away as they landed on the pier with a soft thud of landing gear and the hiss of the ship decompressing and venting. Now she knew why her parents hated to fly so much. She walked slowly to her quarters aboard the interstellar ship and grabbed her duffle bag, laptop case, and messenger bag. She smiled at the passing members of the Deadelus' crew and joined the flow of the crowd heading for the hatch and onto the pier.

The sun was bright on Atlantis. The sky was clear, and the air smelled crisp and clean. Compared to Earth, this was paradise. She gazed up at the many towers of the complex in awe, bumping into several people.

"Sorry." She muttered, still looking up at the architecture.

"Come with me." Caldwell passed her and motioned for her to follow behind him. She sped up to fall into step beside him, nearly having to jog to keep pace.

"It would be nice if you'd slow down." Sephora huffed as she stopped to catch her breath.

"Why should I do that?" Caldwell said haughtily. He hadn't liked her from the start. He didn't agree with the SGC and the IOA on sending some child to another galaxy to fight the Wraith.

This only made Sephora dislike him more than she already did. His attitude and superiority complex was enough to make an enemy of her, but to condescend her in such a way and to think that she would only serve to take up space just made matters worse.

"Forgive me if my legs aren't as long as yours and the fact that there isn't a stick shoved up my…"

"I think that's enough, Miss Reneau." She had heard that voice before, back on the Deadelus. Seeing the look in Caldwell's eyes, she was half sorry that the woman had stopped her and half pleased. If there was one thing Sephora loved more than music and food, it was having a nice row. There was something about fighting over trivial things that made her smile, and sometimes make her laugh uncontrollably so much that tears filled her eyes and her sides ached for hours afterwards. She shot him a rather smug smirk and turned to the woman.

"It's not fair that you know my name, and I don't know yours." She held out her free hand and smiled sweetly.

The other woman grasped it firmly and smiled back, quite amused at what she'd walked up on. The girl had stood her ground against Caldwell and didn't bat an eye. Elizabeth liked her already.

"My name is Doctor Elizabeth Wier. I'm the head of this expedition. Any questions you have, you can come directly to me, or the only other person above you in your department, Doctor Rodney McKay. You'll be meeting him soon enough." Weir turned to Caldwell and nodded. "That'll be enough. I didn't think you'd go as low as fighting with someone that's not only a new member of my team and this family, but is also half your age if not more, Steven."

Caldwell could do nothing more than glare at the two as they walked away. He followed not long after, huffing and muttering something about 'women,' and 'always having to win.'

* * *

"So," Sephora smiled as they walked, looking in awe at the things around her. She couldn't believe that she was actually in the lost city of Atlantis. "This is Atlantis, huh? Its pretty impressive. I'm surprised that its in such pristine shape after hearing everything you all have put it through." She said with a laugh.

Wier smiled and nodded. "Yes, well, Doctor McKay is quite good with last minute ways to save us all from being blown up, burnt up, or drowned among other things." A slightly stocky man in a dark blue shirt and khaki uniform pants past between the two, muttering to himself and typing almost angrily at the tablet in his hands. "Speak of the devil. Doctor McKay." Wier stopped and turned back, waiting on the man to do the same.

"Yes? What is it, Elizabeth?" He said, turning back but never looking up from his computer. Sephora couldn't quite place the accent, but she liked it.

"I'd like you to meet Miss Reneau, the newest member of the science department and the new Head of Translation." That got his attention. His head shot up and his eyes seemed to glow with a strange emotion that Sephora couldn't place. She smiled softly as she shifted her things to hold a hand out to greet him.

"Hi."

"Hi." He looked at her hand for a moment before remembering why it was there. He put his stylus down and grasped her hand briefly with his own. "Its great to meet you. I've heard from Jackson that your fluent in Ancient. I just hope that he was right."

Sephora raised an eyebrow. "_I assure you, Doctor McKay, that he was correct. I speak perfect Ancient and even some amounts of Wraith, though it is a bit harder to comprehend._" She said in Ancient, speaking it as fluently as he spoke French.

His eyes widened in shock and that sparkle one with a high IQ gets from learning something new. He regained his composer quickly, though. "That's adequate I suppose. Just don't screw anything up. We have enough people around here to do that already, they don't need your help." He nodded to Wier before turning and walking off.

Sephora looked at Wier with a huff, angry at his words yet slightly smug at his initial reaction. "What's his problem?"

"He's like that to everyone at first. Don't worry about it. He just has to feel like he's the smartest man in the room. Let him think that, even if he's wrong, and he'll be much easier to deal with. He's snappy and rude when his ego gets deflated." She smiled as they reached a door along one of the side corridors. "Well, these are your quarters. Get settled in. I'll send someone to get you shortly so they can show you around, then I'd like you to meet me in my office so that we can talk. I like to get to know every member of this expedition on some level." She turned and walked off as the door slid open.

Sephora watched Wier as she disappeared around the corner, before entering the room. The door slid shut behind her as she looked around. A bed was up against one wall, out of the way. There was a dresser on the opposite wall, along with another door that she assumed led to her personal bathroom. One wall was completely taken over by floor-to-ceiling windows and a door leading out to her own balcony. A desk was against the last wall, her tablet and other computer equipment already set up on top , along with the door she'd just come through and a comfortable looking sofa. Everything was the same monochrome color scheme of white, gray and silver, but that couldn't be helped. Sephora began unpacking her things, attempting to add her own personal touch to the rather drab setting.

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Author's Note: Sorry this took so long. I'll try to do better with the next chapter. I need help figuring out whom to pair Sephora with. If I could get people's input on it, that would be great. The choices are: Ronon, John, Rodney, and Michael. Yes, Michael is a choice. Everyone needs love, even if they are an insane, vengeful Wraith.


End file.
